


Intent

by orphan_account



Series: Falling Differently [7]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Gen, M/M, Spoilers through Visionary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-21
Updated: 2013-09-21
Packaged: 2017-12-27 05:39:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He clutches Isaac close, burying his nose in the small tuft of curls crowning the babe’s head, and gives no heed to the passage of time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intent

Things are silent in the kitchen after Stiles has his moment of epiphany. He clutches Isaac close, burying his nose in the small tuft of curls crowning the babe’s head, and gives no heed to the passage of time.  
  
On the periphery of his limited focus, Talia and Derek watch the pair with aimless concern. If they were pack, they would have been enveloped in the comfort of their touch the moment they began sensing Stiles’s distress. As it is, they are outsiders who smell of pack in only the most superficial ways, and the rules of engagement are murky. In the end, Derek drags his attention back to preparing breakfast for the coming horde, and Talia gives Stiles a little more time with his thoughts before straightening from her place against the wall and gently clearing her throat.  
  
“I think I’ve heard more than enough for now. We probably shouldn’t discuss this any further when we can be overheard. Why don’t you come with me and we’ll see about getting you and Isaac clean before the rest of the house wakes up? Derek can set a plate aside for you so that you don’t have to fend against everyone else for what’s left.”  
  
It takes longer than it should for Stiles to respond. He feels as though he has to go searching for his voice, which is certainly a novel problem for him to handle. When he finds it, he mumbles, “Thanks, but I’m not really hungry anymore.” He is, though. He is hollow and his stomach feels as though it is turning on him, trying to eat itself. But the thought of eating now, when he has finally been forced to face the truth about his father’s death, is enough to make bile rise up into his mouth.  
  
“Maybe not,” Talia says, “but you’re going to do it anyway. Do you know why?”  
  
For a moment, there is nothing but the sound of Derek stirring something and then adjusting the knob for one of the burners, and Stiles realizes that Talia is waiting for him to respond. He drags his face away from Isaac’s sweet - though slightly dirty, after two days on the run - baby scent, and looks up at her, a soft noise of inquiry escaping him.  
  
“Because Isaac needs you, and there is no way that you will be able to take care of him if you do not take care of yourself.” She takes a step closer, forcing Stiles to lean his head back in order to look her in the eye. “I know that this is going to be hard for you, but if you cannot take care of Isaac yourself, I _will_ find someone who can do it for you.”  
  
 _No._  
  
His breath catches, and his heart begins to thunder in his chest.  
  
Isaac is the very last wolf of their pack, and the only person Stiles has left. Stiles will do anything to keep them from being separated.  
  
He feels the beginnings of a panic attack coming on, but he shoves his fear as far down as it will go, pulling Isaac and himself out of the chair. Swallowing firmly, he looks at Talia with barely banked fire in his eyes. “You said something about a bath?”  
  
…  
  
He wonders, a little later on, as he carefully drags a baby washcloth down Isaac’s back in the little tub that had been stowed away under the bathroom sink, whether his dad ever had to face that kind of ultimatum after his mom died. There was a space of about a year following her death that he lost his dad, too, though not to cancer. Instead, his dad was lost in the bottle, trying and failing to drown his grief in work and far too much alcohol.  
  
Stiles spent most of the time that he wasn’t at school either reading over his mom’s old books and honing his abilities as best he could without an actual guide, or doing various things around the house, to keep it from falling into chaos. Camden used to come over after finishing at swim practice to, in his words, “Keep you out of trouble.”  
  
Looking back on it now, he thinks it was probably to keep him from feeling lonely.  
  
His dad never did stop drinking, but he started slowing down and being present, and at nine years old, that was all that had mattered to Stiles.  
  
He doesn’t want there to be a gap year for Isaac. Even though, as he grows older, he will forget everything that happened in his first years of life, Stiles wants to be able to look back on this time and remember it, no matter how painful learning how to function in their little pack of two will be.  
  
As he rinses any traces of the organic baby soap Talia helped him find from Isaac’s body, he makes a promise, and he does not care who may or may not hear it. “You’re mine now, Isaac. I will never leave you, and no one will ever be able to take you away from me.” He binds the words with a bit of his spark, and knows that the surrounding werewolves will feel it.  
  
He may be grateful to the Hales for rescuing them from the hunters last night, but alpha or not, if Talia Hale tries to declare Stiles an unfit guardian, he will rain hell down upon her head.


End file.
